Will Windows Phone succeed?

cu3ed · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:17

Im currently wondering kinda why it hasn't been more popular? I do realise it's very very young compared to Droid and certainly iOS, but was wondering what do you think the "make it or break it" time would come, I cant see MS just giving up on it. I could also see big things for it with integration with Win8 on the horizon.

Just curious on peoples thoughts, or what you think is holding it back, I think it needs more advertising/ exposure, I'm nearly certain that if you took the average high street user and gave them a working device for 5 minutes they would consider it.

paradigm · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:21

Windows 8 will be the make or break moment for Windows Phone IMO. It's a very similar interface (both metro, one horizontal, one vertical), and they heavily tie-in to each other (as do a lot of upcoming Microsoft technologies), pretty seamlessly.

I love it, really slick, really simple, does everything I want it to do... except have a decent marketplace (and by that I don't mean full of utter bumf like the Android market, but it certainly needs more top-level developers releasing decent apps).

Hopefully, Windows 8 and it's tablet edition will bring a nice full-featured marketplace, and a wave of new high-quality apps.

cymatty · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:26

Not whilst it is called windows phone, most people will be put off by that.

Lets be honest most iPhone owners bought an iPhone not because it was a good phone but because it was an iPhone. Simply being a good phone and having a different UI will not cut it.

cu3ed · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:26

Forgot about the market place....and I dont consider myself a HUGE app person, but theirs some key ones missing which I find odd as the "Metro" style to me would suit say the iPlayer...as it sports a very striking style to Metro, and say an official BBC app etc.

cu3ed · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:29

cymatty said:
Not whilst it is called windows phone, most people will be put off by that.

Lets be honest most iPhone owners bought an iPhone not because it was a good phone but because it was an iPhone. Simply being a good phone and having a different UI will not cut it.

You really think it can put that many people off?..would it have been better to market it simple as Metro Phone or something?

cymatty · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:33

cu3ed said:
You really think it can put that many people off?..would it have been better to market it simple as Metro Phone or something?

A different name may have helped. Not sure Metro would work though.

People wil assume Windows = PC = complicated.

Sinny · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:35

cymatty said:
A different name may have helped. Not sure Metro would work though.

People wil assume Windows = PC = complicated.

Most of the time it's through word of mouth, most of my friends have iPhones because their friends had iPhones.

I've already converted 2 people to Windows Phone.

Rich_L · 23 Jan 2012 at 20:38

Yeah I reckon it'll do fine with the Nokia tie-up, Blackberry on the other hand are going to go down the pan rapidly unless they come up with something soon.

I think there's room in the market for a big 3rd player, Apple has it's Apple stuff, Android is going to fill the whole spectrum but IMO there are still some rough edges especially on the lower-end phones which need to be worked out (though I haven't tried ICS yet but I don't think that'll change much) so I can easily see MS/Nokia filling a mid to low-range but fully capable and high performance niche

mrochester · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:05

cymatty said:
Not whilst it is called windows phone, most people will be put off by that.

Lets be honest most iPhone owners bought an iPhone not because it was a good phone but because it was an iPhone. Simply being a good phone and having a different UI will not cut it.

Speak for yourself! I bought an iPhone because I think it's the best phone on the market. I think it's just ignorant to assume people only buy the iPhone because it's an iPhone. People buy it because they think it's a bloody good phone!

I think Windows Phone will eventually be successful. It offers the best of both the Android and iOS worlds to the consumer. Sadly, to the manufacturers and networks, it offers the worst of both so you'll probably see the networks pushing Android a lot harder as that's more in tune with their profit making interests.

cymatty · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:09

mrochester said:
Speak for yourself! I bought an iPhone because I think it's the best phone on the market. I think it's just ignorant to assume people only buy the iPhone because it's an iPhone. People buy it because they think it's a bloody good phone!

I said most, not all. Most iPhone owners I know dont have a clue about the specs or capabilities of the phone.

reflux · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:10

Yes, the key behind sales of the iPhone is brand recognition. People know what they're getting.

Windows Phone should have that, but somewhat limited promotion and lack of halo devices has let it down I think.

mrochester · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:10

cymatty said:
I said most, not all. Most iPhone owners I know dont have a clue about the specs or capabilities of the phone.

That's the case for the vast majority of smartphone owners, regardless of platform.

Robbo · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:12

Windows Phone will find its place alongside iOS and Android as time passes, it's a solid OS but still needs work on the app side of things and in a few other places.

cymatty said:
Lets be honest most iPhone owners bought an iPhone not because it was a good phone but because it was an iPhone. Simply being a good phone and having a different UI will not cut it.

mrochester said:
Speak for yourself! I bought an iPhone because I think it's the best phone on the market. I think it's just ignorant to assume people only buy the iPhone because it's an iPhone. People buy it because they think it's a bloody good phone!

Indeed. I have little doubt that there are some people who buy the iPhone just because it's an iPhone, but most do at least some research into what they are buying before splashing out £500/600 or agreeing to £40~ per month contracts.

The perception of the general public is that the iPhone is the best phone, while that isn't the case in every area, it's certainly arguably the best overall device.

cymatty · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:15

mrochester said:
That's the case for the vast majority of smartphone owners, regardless of platform. That doesn't mean they only bought it because it's an iPhone.

If they dont know the capabilities or the specs of the phone then the reason they bought it must be because it is an iphone. :confused:

I wish I had a £1 for every conversation I have had with someone who owns or wants an iPhone and when quizzed over why they have bought it had no better answer than "its an iPhone"

I agree though that ignorance around the device is not only limited to iphones it is a problem on android as well. However the Windows brand will usually have a perception good or bad with the public due to desktop OS.

mrochester · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:19

Robbo said:
Windows Phone will find its place alongside iOS and Android as time passes, it's a solid OS but still needs work on the app side of things and in a few other places.

Indeed. I have little doubt that there are some people who buy the iPhone just because it's an iPhone, but most do at least some research into what they are buying before splashing out £500/600 or agreeing to £40~ per month contracts.

The perception of the general public is that the iPhone is the best phone, while that isn't the case in every area, it's certainly arguably the best overall device.

Exactly. It's the people who are dropping very little money on commodity hardware who have little to no knowledge or interest in what they are buying. This accounts for feature phones, Symbian and Android smartphones. iPhones are well out of this bracket. You can see the exact same thing in the PC and TV market; the people who have no knowledge or interest in what they are buying tend to plump for the cheapest thing.

If they dont know the capabilities or the specs of the phone then the reason they bought it must be because it is an iphone.

Or they could have tried it out and decided they much preferred it to what else was on offer? These people you speak of aren't buying products blind folded. They are looking at them, trying them out, then deciding.

Tatsuki · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:45

I think it will succeed it's a very fluid and hassle free OS much like IOS but with more variety.
The app store needs more things like banking/shops specific apps but Android often doesn't have these either. And MS really is pushing the developer side of the phone and they support devs extremely well.
One thing I think Wp7 has over android for devs is that free apps have not become what people expect of it like Android. If the market share of Wp7 increases they potentially could make more money from it compared to Android. Lack of revenue from Android compared to IOS is a problem for many Devs and hopefully WP7 can avoid this pitfall.

englishpremier · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:46

Isn't the Lumia 800 or whatever it's called outselling the iPhone 4 S and the Galaxy SII in Europe?

Robbo · 23 Jan 2012 at 21:48

englishpremier said:
Isn't the Lumia 800 or whatever it's called outselling the iPhone 4 S and the Galaxy SII in Europe?

Nooooooooooooo. There were a few rumours early on that it was, but it's actually doing quite badly apparently.

Mekrel · 23 Jan 2012 at 22:25

Tatsuki said:
I think it will succeed it's a very fluid and hassle free OS much like IOS but with more variety.
The app store needs more things like banking/shops specific apps but Android often doesn't have these either. And MS really is pushing the developer side of the phone and they support devs extremely well.
One thing I think Wp7 has over android for devs is that free apps have not become what people expect of it like Android. If the market share of Wp7 increases they potentially could make more money from it compared to Android. Lack of revenue from Android compared to IOS is a problem for many Devs and hopefully WP7 can avoid this pitfall.

The revenue problem Android has versus iOS isn't driven by any expectations of free apps - it's driven by Google's inability to provide a payment method that works for everyone in many countries.
WP doesn't support devs well at all. See here for a perfect example from Koush (one extremely tallented individual) where his Gvoice app as rejected for the most stupid of reasons. Obviously if you navigate to a voicemail to listen to one, you'll want to listen to it instead of music...
He also found that it took them 28 days to reject his app for this silly reason
Carbon (very good WebOS Twitter client) have also given up on WP7 development today because of constant refusal of their app for silly reasons.

Koush has loads of problems with WP7 app publishing!

Will it succeed? Depends how you define succeed but I doubt its market share will be anything substantial for quite some time, if ever.

Amp34 · 23 Jan 2012 at 22:29

Where has the "quite badly" come from? Just out of interest.

I know the 800 had top spot on several networks in europe for several weeks (maybe even still) so I'm intrigued if this is just an anomaly in the overall phone market.

Anyone know how much storage it has? 32GB would be nice... And offset the size of the screen as well.